Now more than ever, there's a need for law firms to stay on the cutting edge of technology and digital marketing practices. Learn about the three areas your law firm can improve in to increase legal consultations.
Areas covered in the checklist:
Website: The goal of a website is to make a good first impression and to allow law firms to convert website traffic to legal consultations. Do you have tracking pixels, mobile responsive edits, etc. in place to help you land consultations?
Social Media: Your prospective customers are on Instagram engaging with their friends and family. That's where their attention is and therefore, that's where your company should show up. Target people based on age, interests, and more.
Search Engines: People go to Google when they want solutions to their problems. For example, husbands or wives seeking divorce will search "divorce lawyer" online. By showing up on Google, you stand to get in touch with people like them.
Area Number One: Your Website
Your website is meant to attract prospective customers to your firm. The following points will help you to: get found online, deliver a great first impression, and measure your online marketing success.
Has your website been indexed by Google?
Indexing is the process by which Google shows your website on Google.com. The simplest way to get Google to index your site is to provide it with a sitemap which is a page with all associated links of your site. By letting Google know what’s on your site, it doesn’t have to find it on its own meaning that it can show your website online sooner to your prospective customers.
Does your website work well on mobile devices?
Nowadays, people visit law firm websites on their smartphones. For this reason, it’s important that you have a website that loads quick on mobile devices and that has clickable actions such as “Call Now” buttons or links that website visitors can easily click on to call your office.
Has the Facebook Pixel been installed?
The Facebook Pixel allows you to run ads to website visitors across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and more. You want to have it installed as it will allow you to share targeted advertising to those people that already know about your practice but that may not have taken an action, such as making a call to your office. We may be able to help you install the Pixel on your site free of charge.
Has Google Analytics been installed on your website?
Google Analytics allows you to learn where your website visitors come from and to measure the actions those visitors took. This helps you determine the number of calls or form submissions your website received and this in effect makes it possible for you to understand what your website is providing in terms of return on investment.
Area Number Two: Your Law Firms Social Media
Your prospective customers are spending hours each day on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. For this reason, it’s important to be active on these sites. Our aim with social media is to engage existing customers with organic content and to generate legal consultations with prospective customers through paid advertising.
Has the firm created accounts on Facebook and Instagram?
These are the two most powerful social media platforms at this time. Other platforms to consider include LinkedIn and TikTok.
Is the firm regularly sharing content on social media?
It’s important to maintain an online presence by continuously sharing content such as images and videos on social media. While it won’t directly result in new legal consultations, it’s a great way to stay engaged with existing clients that may refer you new business over time.
Has the firm put in place one person to monitor comments and messages?
If you’re running ads and/or sharing content, it’s vital that you have someone whose role it is to respond to comments and messages as those communications can result in new legal consultations.
Is the firm running social media advertising campaigns?
These campaigns are a great way for law firms to generate legal consultations with prospective clients. By showing advertising on Facebook, you’re able to target people by interests, behaviors, etc. For example, if you’re a family lawyer, you can target parents or people that are married while if you’re an immigration attorney, you can target people that have come from other countries.
Area Number Three: Your Visibility on Search Engines
When prospective customers search for lawyers, they use search engines such as Google. The following points will help you show up on Google search through organic and paid methods so that your firm can generate more legal consultations.
Is the firm running paid search advertising on search engines?
By advertising on Google, a law firm is able to get phone calls to their office from people interested in hiring their services. For example, a firm is able to choose to show up on Google for “immigration lawyer” if they offer immigration help, “divorce attorney” if they offer family law help, etc. The best part about search engine advertising is that you only pay for the clicks you receive and therefore, it’s possible to estimate the number of phone calls you can expect to receive with a given budget. We can provide a free paid advertising consultation.
Is the firm sharing blog posts each month as part of an SEO strategy?
Firms that publish articles monthly can generate additional traffic over time. The key is to write an article for Google AND the reader. By this, we mean that it’s important to follow the best practices for posts including using keywords in the title, optimizing meta tags, adding alt text to images, and more. Not having SEO in mind can result in articles that don’t get any organic traffic at all.
Has the firm claimed it’s Google My Business account?
A Google My Business account allows firms to manage their Google Maps information that includes their website URL, office address, phone number, hours of operation, and more. This is a valuable tool to utilize as it increases the chances of prospective clients finding the firm online and in their area.
Start Using This Law Firm Marketing Checklist
Now is the best time to get your law practice updated on all things digital. The process will take time but that's what's necessary to yield results over the long run.
Our team is happy to go over your law firm marketing checklist and answer any questions that you may have. REN specialists have plenty of insight to guide you on your journey to building a strong digital presence. With over thousands of leads generated and a focus on ROI, we're ready to help you get started. Contact us today.